https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=150343 Section 23(3) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act was treated as creating an automatic statutory liability on delayed payment of assessed tax, with no discretion left to the assessing authority. The provision was construed as operating on default according to the statute's own terms, and Rule 31 was limited to the mode of remittance and demand notice. On that basis, prior hearing was held unnecessary, natural justice principles were inapplicable, and mens rea was excluded by the legislative wording. The Article 14 challenge also failed because the differential consequence flowed from the assessee's own choice of payment mode and subsequent default. en-us Mon, 05 Feb 1973 00:00:00 +0530 Mon, 13 May 2013 14:38:19 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=150343 Section 23(3) of the Kerala General Sales Tax Act was treated as creating an automatic statutory liability on delayed payment of assessed tax, with no discretion left to the assessing authority. The provision was construed as operating on default according to the statute's own terms, and Rule 31 was limited to the mode of remittance and demand notice. On that basis, prior hearing was held unnecessary, natural justice principles were inapplicable, and mens rea was excluded by the legislative wording. The Article 14 challenge also failed because the differential consequence flowed from the assessee's own choice of payment mode and subsequent default. Case-Laws VAT and Sales Tax Mon, 05 Feb 1973 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=150343